The high-gain sounds of the Ecstasy amp's Red Channel in a compact pedal.

The Ecstasy amplifier was born in 1992, and decades later Bogner is still hand building each amp, one at a time, in Los Angeles, California. The Ecstasy Red pedal captures the mystical Red-Channel tone of this legendary amplifier, famous for its incendiary, higher-gain crunch and lead tones. Using interactive controls to adjust gain and EQ settings, the red pedal delivers a wide range of expressive tones from vintage overdrive to ripping modern high gain. Ideal for aggressive playing styles, the Ecstacy Red pedal boasts the outrageous heavy tones that get Bogner amps into the backlines of rock's most notable players.

Reinhold designed the Ecstasy Red pedal with five discrete Class A gain stages and no op-amps or diode clipping, mirroring the circuitry of the Ecstasy amplifier's Red Channel. This revolutionary approach provides clarity, touch sensitivity and note separation never before achieved in overdrive pedals.

The Ecstasy Red is powered by a standard 9V battery or 9V power supply. Reinhold's advanced circuitry internally elevates the voltage a substantially higher level. This higher voltage provides a greater dynamic range which closely resembles the feel of the Ecstasy amplifier's legendary tube design.

Bogner tone & quality in a pedal. Its not exactly cheap, but better than $4k on the actual amp.. and for tone snobs like myself, its worth every penny. I play...Read complete review

Bogner tone & quality in a pedal. Its not exactly cheap, but better than $4k on the actual amp.. and for tone snobs like myself, its worth every penny. I play through a Bogner Alchemist head & 2x12 cabinet & when you combine these products the sound is incredible. Its hard to describe tone, but it has the searing white hot fizzy high gain tone that bogner is known for. I never used any pedals other than a Boss TU-2 tuner until I played this. With more than enough gain, this emulates tube tone & quality with rich harmonics & sustain. I highly recommend watching the demo video of this pedal on the bogner website. It is very detailed & accurate to the pedal. I suggest trying the treble around 3 o'clock, middle between 11 and 1 o'clock and bass around 11 o'clock for that killer bogner high gain tone. The bass is quite potent so I prefer to back off a little myself because there is a signifcant boost in low end frequencies while the boost function is active. I give this 4 stars rather than 5 because of the price & the fact that the paint seems to scratch somewhat easily.

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Mine was a sea of noise straight away but the MF crew took care of me right. Thanks MF !

Mine was a sea of noise straight away but the MF crew took care of me right. Thanks MF !

I just got this pedal as a companion to the Uberschall pedal which I've been using for a while. The Red is a pretty big improvement in terms of the sound I'm looking for. The most noticeable thing is the difference in voicing. The Red, on most settings has a much wider frequency response than the Uberschall. There's much more openness to the sound and less compression. I do still think the Uberschall is better than most of the other distortion pedals I've tried. But to hear them side by side it's much easier to notice how the Uberschall can be kind of boxy sounding. Almost like there's a high and low pass filter on the pedal cutting off the ends of the sonic spectrum and I've always had trouble cutting through a rehearsals with the Uberschall unless I'm using a ton of volume. The Red is tighter, brighter and sounds much more like an amp to me. It's also way more flexible with all the little switches that effect the tone. There is also just as much gain available on the Red when you consider the boost function. I have no problem getting huge metal tones out of it. I will probably hold on the my Uberschall pedal in case I need some darker tones at some point but the Red is definitely my new go-to.

FOLLOW UP:So the first one was a flike - second one I got was exactly what I expected - to hear what the demos shown, and then some - very versatile and sounds great. Even with the eq and gain all the way up.Responds to guitar volume controls with tele - rock out with Les Paul.MF great to deal with - rock on guys

I bought this pedal several months ago and thought it sounded very, very good. I was looking for the early EVH tone... and thought it did a really good job but found it to be very versatile as well. It is so crisp and clean but crunchy... but you can also go right over the top too. I did find there was a little bit of hiss but nothing out of the ordinary.

Lots of EQ capabilities as well as the tonal variations available with the switches. I was able to dial in what I felt was a very authentic VH tone.

I was still keeping my eyes and ears open for other options and read how there is the ultimate "Brown Sound" pedal so I got one as well. I also bought a the other one advertised as the next best thing to see if I could get something even more to my liking. Neither of those pedals could touch the Red in my opinion. They both also had the slight hiss that I was hoping to get rid of. I sold them both.

Incredible performance tool. I checked the Bogner website to compare tones of the various Ecstacy models and found this Red model to be the perfect of balance between a hair band sound all the way to a Mesa aggresiveness. With it's variac switching, multiple modes for gain, eq and Ecstacy models, it is capable of emulating a plexi to a EVH roar. I use an Orange M/T head through a 12" Kustom lightweight cab running a full 20w of clean (mic'd). Thanks to the Bogner, the Orange head and a Plexitone, I can get quite a variety of gain tones in a small package!

I wrote a review based on sound clips and functionality (I've owned over 100 pedals) while waiting for it to arrive but sadly the review was canned. I've had the Ecstacy for several weeks now and it's blown my Plexitone away, as well as other Wamp### pedals. Incredible tonal adjustment from bass, mids and treble as well as a variac emulation, mode, pre eq and structure switches based on the actual all tube amp head.

Each one performs a noticeable function which affects the texture of the sound. Mode and structure are my favorites; mode affecting the pedal's temperment from an angry Mesa to a well rounded Marshall. The structure gives you a choice of 3 different Bogner Ecstacy head configurations, including the 20th anniversary version of the amp. All in all, it's like getting 2-3 different amp head configurations and not an EVH one-trick pony sound. My Plexitone is for Marshall Plexi through JCM800-900 sounds and it does that marvelously. The Bogner Blue may one day replace my Plexitone for those sounds. I don't play death metal so the Uberschall pedal has no use for me. Thank you Musicians Friend for providing such a wide range of choices and excellent services, from buying, exchanging and even the occasional return.

Comparing the Bogner Red Ecstacy to the Pinnacle is misleading. Which Pinnacle version? I've owned them both in various release configurations (with or without the boost) and found the Pinnacle to be one trick pony. Why buy a Bogner pedal (which never mentions EVH) if looking for the "brown sound"? The Pinnacle or the Mad Professor should have looked at first. And yes, the stripped down Pinnacle is still the same cost as the Brown. If you add the boost to the Pinnacle, you're gonna pay more still. A lot of pesos to cover one guy LOL.

I've watched the PGS clip and I really like what I hear. I can't wait until mine comes next week. I currently own a C. Martin Plexitone, an AMT O2 Orange dist/preamp and a Plextortion so I'm not biased against Wampler products.

My Micro Terror and Traynor 12" cab prove very flexible with the pedals I have. With the addition of the Ecstacy, I feel I have my bases covered for my set list. I don't need a Mesa pedal although I love 'em 'cause I don't play death or thrash. Bogner is awesome.

I really wanted and expected to like this pedal, given Bogner's great amps and this high price tag. I was so disappointed. The distortion tone is good, but nothing very special. What really turned me off was the way the dynamics are totally squashed. I have played less expensive pedals by Wampler, Fulltone, Hermida, etc. that have gorgeous tone and are much more responsive to picking dynamics. I used it on a couple of gigs and found that this is not a pedal that cuts through a live mix very well. That's probably why they had to build in that fancy boost footswitch with the variable gain and output - you will need the volume boost if you want your solos to be heard at all. Also, the YouTube demos are somewhat misleading about the amount of boost adjustment - you can only add a little bit of gain and/or output volume. I ended up returning this pedal and trying the Wampler Pinnacle, which I find much more impressive.

Bogner tone & quality in a pedal. Its not exactly cheap, but better than $4k on the actual amp.. and for tone snobs like myself, its worth every penny. I play through a Bogner Alchemist head & 2x12 cabinet & when you combine these products the sound is incredible. Its hard to describe tone, but it has the searing white hot fizzy high gain tone that bogner is known for. I never used any pedals other than a Boss TU-2 tuner until I played this. With more than enough gain, this emulates tube tone & quality with rich harmonics & sustain. I highly recommend watching the demo video of this pedal on the bogner website. It is very detailed & accurate to the pedal. I suggest trying the treble around 3 o'clock, middle between 11 and 1 o'clock and bass around 11 o'clock for that killer bogner high gain tone. The bass is quite potent so I prefer to back off a little myself because there is a signifcant boost in low end frequencies while the boost function is active. I give this 4 stars rather than 5 because of the price & the fact that the paint seems to scratch somewhat easily.